Jamie tilted his head, his forehead bunching.
“If I stay here,” she continued, “there won’t be enough time for you to get back with the fob before the password expires.”
She inhaled. God, was she really about to say this?
“I’ll have to come with you.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
DARKNESSFELLEARLY, cranking the nerves in Samira’s chest, like her body knew what nightfall would bring. It was less of a transition from daylight to sunset to night than a gradual dimming from gray to black. The temperature, which hadn’t moved off cold and damp all day, sank along with the light.
Shortly after midday, Laura had posted photos from the West End boutique where she’d bought a dress and coat for the book signing. While Holly bleached her hair and Samira studied YouTube tutorials to figure out how to cut it into something resembling Laura’s style, Rafe went shopping for the same dress and coat, and a long list of makeup, to Holly’s specifications. He returned grumbling about the price tags and the women he’d had to fight for the clothes.
“Don’t worry,capitaine,” Jamie had said. “You can sell them on eBay for a profit. Unless something happens in the next few hours to, I don’t know, ruin Laura Hyland’s reputation.”
“And don’t forget,” added Holly, holding the slinky red dress against her. “We’re basically using Hyland’s money.”
“How so?” Jamie said.
“Rafe forced him to pay me hush money after I, uh,quitmy job, but I always felt too sick about everything to spend it.” She gave Samira a sideways look. “I also know some secrets that wouldn’t look good for Laura or the senator—but no one would believe them. I’d love to get some dirt on them today.”
“Me, too,” Samira said, pulling several magnets off the fridge to wipe a keycard Holly had somehow pickpocketed from a hotel guest in a café that morning. Crime #453.
Still grumbling, Rafe had left again to hire a car the same model and color as Laura’s Prius. At least they weren’t stealing it. Jamie, meanwhile, visited a suit hire shop and an office supplies store, where he bought a printer and laminator with the last of Samira’s savings.
When he returned and pulled on his suit, Samira couldn’t help stealing glances. Nothing sexier than a well-cut man in a well-cut suit. Except a well-cut man stripped from his well-cut suit...
With Rafe still out and Holly in the bathroom, Jamie sauntered to the table, where Samira was designing fake security credentials on the laptop, having zoomed in on photos of Laura’s bodyguards on the web and enhanced their swing tags, which wasn’t easy because they usually kept them flipped over. He stood behind her, his warm presence quickening her breath. On her phone, which he’d set to play loops of her playlist—to give her courage, no doubt—Dionne Warwick was lost in a husky fog. “I’ll Never Love This Way Again.”
Maybe not, Dionne. But he’s not the guy for me.
After a minute he leaned down and gently pushed her hair away from her ear. The skin on her neck tingled and she glanced at the bathroom, her stomach clenching. The back of Holly’s newly blond hair was just visible, as she leaned toward the mirror, applying more makeup than Samira would use in a year.
Jamie whispered, “You have a thing for a guy in a suit.”
She had a thing for one particular commando doctor in a suit, yeah. Who wouldn’t? She zipped up her spine, which only brought Jamie’s lips closer to her neck. “Because men in suits don’t tend to risk their lives on a daily basis.”
He nuzzled her neck. “So,sodull.”
She pushed away from the table, forcing him to skip sideways to avoid her. “I came up blank on getting into the hotel’s systems, though I found a recent video interview in an online industry magazine with their head of security.”
“How does that help us?” he said, all business again.
She set the video to play. “He’s sitting in front of a bank of hotel security monitors. The interview’s ten minutes long, and in that time it cycles through all the camera positions a couple of times. With the help of the photos on their website and internet reviews, and floor plans I found in a heritage architecture magazine online, I’ve been able to map them.”
“Genius.”
“Not as cool as rerouting them, but... I also found a little more dirt on Fitz, and I’ve managed to get into Laura’s email, thanks to the virus we planted earlier.” She closed the laptop and took a knife to the printer box, sitting on the kitchen island. “It’s the password recovery email account for all her social media, which means I can lock her out so she can’t post while we’re at the hotel, in case anyone there is following her feed. And seeing as she has seven million followers on Twitter alone, that’s a high probability. To her, it should just look like a glitch.”
“I love it when you talk techie.”
As she held the box open, Jamie coaxed the printer out. His arm didn’t seem to be hindering him.
“I hoped we might find something revealing in her email,” Samira continued, “but she’s just like her father—permanently deletes everything.”
“Maybe she’s more closely involved than we think.”
Holly called out from the bathroom. “She’s with her father almost all the time, so she’d have to be aware of the shit he’s dealing in.”
